Mace, Danvee and Ark42, I cant say how much I appreciate your guidance.

ATT can delete, block, omit and censor all they want. In the end I will be liberated from your uninformed bracket of ignorance and misleading advisories. As I am sure that the support reps are good people trying to do their job under policies that a person standing alone would not abide, what is offered by ATT to the people who have chosen them to provide a cell service is far from what is advertised.

So please enjoy our discussion and try to pay attention as we ignore you and help each other instead because it is the only option we have left.

Danvee, It's a very difficult decision to make as the warranty is important, especially to people like myself who work a physical job and my phone can take a beating unless I take it off my person. So I know exactly where you are coming from.

As for me I am approaching the halfway point in my contract that includes 2 phones so I do not mind so much parting with the $ETF$ to open the doors to freedom from this mistake.

I don't have time to spend on the phone doing basic steps I know will not work after reading this forum. Additionally, I cannot rely on the remote chance that my phone will connect with my wife's phone in the event of an emergency situation which has actually happened on 2 occasions and failed.

I'm not really sure what you guys think the warranty covers. If your phone is going to break, it's almost certainly going to be from one of the things the warranty does NOT cover anyway: dropped and broken screen, water damage, etc. If the hardware is going to fail for some reason that would make the phone actually need the warranty, it will almost certainly fail within the first few weeks. After you've had it for months, the warranty is more or less meaningless.

I'm not really sure what you guys think the warranty covers. If your phone is going to break, it's almost certainly going to be from one of the things the warranty does NOT cover anyway: dropped and broken screen, water damage, etc. If the hardware is going to fail for some reason that would make the phone actually need the warranty, it will almost certainly fail within the first few weeks. After you've had it for months, the warranty is more or less meaningless.

This is quite true but the warranty is so valuble in the event the AT&T software were to fail on the phone. Say for instance the AT&T software prevented the phone from receiving calls and texts! /sarcasm

Sarcastic maybe but has anyone tried that idea???????? If so I'd LOVE to hear how the story ended.

Yep. I didn't use the same argument, but I did get several warranty replacements for my phone, even a warranty upgrade to the S3 I have now. Ultimately, you're still getting a phone with AT&T's software, so the issue should still be there.

Indeed it does. I started this desperate search for a solution close to a year ago on a Galaxy S2 Skyrocket. Went through the normal "replace your SIM" crap until they sent me to a warranty center where they wiped my phone and reinstalled the factory software, and then I finally got a different Skyrocket altogether. When that didn't work, they sent me through the normal channels again before I asked to speak to one of their CS managers, who authorized the warranty upgrade to the S3. I should really call again and explain to them that I can't use LTE and see what they can do for me.

You are paying for it so I would say give it a shot, although it sounds like we can all guess the answer on what they can do for you. Outrageous.

Eeeexactly. Like I said, after...actually, more than a year at this point, I'm sick of dealing with AT&T's CS department. It's the same stuff every time until I can get someone to understand that I've been through all of this before and I do, in fact, know what the [word filter avoidance] I'm talking about. I finally had a really good Tech Support rep on my latest round through them, but I have no way of getting ahold of her anymore.

The issue also exists in the S4, with Android 4.2.2. After filing an FCC complaint, I got a call from someone at AT&T offering to let me out of my contract. She said they were unable to solve the problem. I told her no, to reopen the ticket, so she did that and will get back to me someday. I checked prices on the only compeditor I would consider, and with 5 phones for the family, plus 3 data plans, it would run me maybe $60 more a month. So just jumping ship isn't an option.

I did ask her about "Voice over LTE" as a possible fix, and she said it would be another year or two.